Home › Nevada Estate Planning › Last Will and Testament
Nevada legalized electronic wills in 2001 — sixteen years before any other state — and its version still allows something no other state does: a fingerprint or a retinal scan can take the place of witnesses. Handwritten wills are valid here too, provided the date is in your handwriting. Nevada is a community property state, which means dying without a will runs two different systems at once: your half of the community property goes to your spouse, but your separate property gets split with your children — or, if you have none, with your in-laws. Online services prepare a Nevada-specific will for $199–$299. Every rule below cites the Nevada Revised Statutes.
Most Nevada adults can finish a legally valid will in under an hour.
Two witnesses, a signature, and clear wishes — that’s the whole requirement. An online service like Trust & Will prepares a Nevada-specific will with the witness pages ready to sign.
Disclosure: we earn a commission if you buy through the Trust & Will links here, at no extra cost to you. Complex situations belong with an attorney and we say so below.
Nevada Will Requirements (2026)
NRS § 133.040 sets the execution rules for an ordinary paper will:
| Requirement | Nevada rule | Statute |
|---|---|---|
| In writing | A written document — unless you use one of the two alternatives Nevada allows, a holographic will or an electronic will | §§ 133.040, 133.085, 133.090 |
| Signed | By you, or by an attending person at your express direction | § 133.040 |
| Witnessed | At least two competent witnesses who subscribe their names in your presence — they need not be present with each other | § 133.040 |
| Notarized | Not required for validity | § 133.040 |
Who can make a will: every person of sound mind over the age of 18 (§ 133.020).
Nevada also lets your witnesses sign self-proving declarations or affidavits attached to the will (§ 133.050), and § 133.055 goes a step further than most states: a signature affixed to a self-proving affidavit attached to the will counts as a signature affixed to the will itself. That provision has rescued wills where the testator or a witness signed the affidavit page but not the will page.
Oral wills are void. Section 133.100 is one sentence: “A nuncupative or oral will is not valid.” Whatever was said at the bedside has no legal effect in Nevada — unlike in Kansas, which still allows a narrow oral will for personal property.
Handwritten Wills Are Valid in Nevada — But the Date Is Required
Nevada recognizes holographic wills, and § 133.090 defines one as a will “in which the signature, date and material provisions are written by the hand of the testator, whether or not it is witnessed or notarized.” It is “subject to no other form,” may be made in or out of Nevada, and has “the same force and effect as if formally executed.”
Three elements, all in your handwriting: signature, date, and material provisions. The date is not optional here. Nevada sits with Oklahoma in making the date a statutory element, while California next door does not require one at all. An undated handwritten page that would be a valid California will is not a valid Nevada will. Idaho, the other community property state on this border, requires no date at all — and Alaska, which is community property only if you opt in, requires none either.
Note what Nevada does not require: that the whole document be handwritten. The statute asks for the signature, the date, and the material provisions — the parts that say who gets what. That is more forgiving than “wholly in your own handwriting” states, where a single printed word can be fatal.
Nevada Wrote the Country’s First Electronic Wills Law — in 2001
Every list of electronic-will states starts with Nevada, and for good reason. NRS § 133.085 was added to the statutes in 2001 and rewritten in 2017. No other state authorized electronic wills until Indiana and Arizona in 2018 and 2019.
Under § 133.085(1), an electronic will must be created and maintained in an electronic record and must contain the date and your electronic signature, plus at least one of the following three things:
- An authentication characteristic of the testator;
- The electronic signature and electronic seal of an electronic notary public, placed there in your presence and in whose presence you signed; or
- The electronic signatures of two or more attesting witnesses, placed there in your presence and in whose presence you signed.
That first option is unique in American law. Section 133.085(5)(a) defines an “authentication characteristic” as something unique to a person and capable of measurement and recognition in an electronic record as a biological aspect of, or physical act performed by, that person — and it lists examples: “a fingerprint, a retinal scan, voice recognition, facial recognition, video recording, a digitized signature or other commercially reasonable authentication using a unique characteristic of the person.”
In other words, a Nevada electronic will can be validated by your own biometric data instead of any witness at all. Every other electronic-will state in the country requires human witnesses or a notary. Kentucky’s 2026 act, at the opposite extreme, requires two witnesses who are Kentucky residents physically located in Kentucky.
The catch: qualified custodians
Nevada pairs this flexibility with a custody regime, and it matters. Under § 133.086, an electronic will is self-proving only if the witness declarations are attached to or logically associated with it, the will designates a qualified custodian to hold the electronic record, and the will was under a qualified custodian’s custody at all times before being converted to a certified paper original. Sections 133.300 through 133.340 then govern who may serve as a qualified custodian, how one stops serving and appoints a successor, and how electronic records may be accessed or destroyed.
An electronic will that was never in a qualified custodian’s hands can still be probated, but it has to be converted to a certified paper original supported by an affidavit covering when it was created, how and by whom it was discovered, who had access to it, how it was stored, and whether it has been altered. That is a far heavier lift than handing the court a signed piece of paper.
The practical read: Nevada’s electronic will is real, it is well-built, and it is designed to be used through a service that acts as qualified custodian. A PDF you sign yourself and keep in cloud storage is the worst version of this — technically capable of qualifying, practically a mess at probate. For most families the paper ceremony remains the simplest path.
Dying Without a Will in Nevada: Two Systems at Once
Nevada is a community property state, and this is where most explanations of Nevada intestacy go wrong. The intestacy table in NRS ch. 134 does not govern your whole estate. Section 134.010(3) says the chapter applies only to the separate property of the decedent.
Community property: your spouse is fine
Under NRS § 123.250, on the death of either spouse an undivided one-half interest in the community property is already the survivor’s own separate property. The other half is subject to your will — and in the absence of a will, it goes to the surviving spouse. Only that remaining half is subject to administration at all. So community property — typically everything the two of you earned during the marriage — passes to your spouse without a will.
Separate property: your spouse is not fine
Separate property — what you owned before the marriage, plus anything you inherited or received as a gift during it — runs through the table instead:
| Your situation | What your spouse receives of your SEPARATE property |
|---|---|
| One child (or that child’s issue) | One-half — the child takes the other half (§ 134.040(1)) |
| More than one child | One-third — the children share the remaining two-thirds (§ 134.040(2)) |
| No children, but a parent survives | One-half — one-fourth to each surviving parent (§ 134.050(1)) |
| No children or parents, but a sibling survives | One-half — siblings share the rest (§ 134.050(2)) |
| No children, parents, or siblings | All of it (§ 134.050(4)) |
Two things to notice.
First, § 134.040 counts how many children you have, not whose children they are. Most states reduce the spouse’s share only when a child is from another relationship. Nevada reduces it based purely on the number of children — a couple married thirty years with three children together still leaves the surviving spouse only one-third of the deceased spouse’s separate property.
Second, the childless case catches people badly. If you and your spouse have no children and one of your parents is alive, your spouse takes half your separate property and your parents take the other half. A house you owned before the marriage is separate property. Your spouse can end up owning it jointly with your mother.
Nevada’s Constitution Forbids an Inheritance Tax
Nevada has no estate tax and no inheritance tax, and the inheritance tax is barred at the constitutional level. Article 10, Section 1 of the Nevada Constitution, in the middle of a list of tax provisions, contains a seven-word subsection:
“No inheritance tax shall ever be levied.” — Nev. Const. art. 10, § 1(7)
Nevada’s former estate tax (NRS ch. 375A) was a “pick-up” tax measured by the federal credit for state death taxes, and it became inoperative when Congress eliminated that credit. Only the federal estate tax can reach a Nevada estate, and it applies to very few. See how the states compare in our state-by-state comparison.
What a Will Costs in Nevada
| Route | Typical cost | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Handwritten | $0 | Valid if signature, date and material provisions are in your hand — no witnesses needed, but easily contested |
| Online service | $199 individual / $299 couple | Nevada-specific will with witness pages, done in about an hour |
| Nevada attorney | Flat fees vary — Las Vegas and Reno run above rural counties | Custom drafting and counsel, including sorting community from separate property |
Online pricing verified against Trust & Will’s published rates (August 2026). The State Bar of Nevada publishes no fee survey, so we quote no attorney figures we can’t source. See how Nevada compares with the rest of the country for national cost ranges and a state-by-state table of will requirements.
What a Nevada Will Does Not Do
1. A will does not avoid probate. Nevada probate is a district court process on the public record. Nevada does offer transfer-on-death deeds for real estate and set-aside procedures for small estates. For the comparison, see what a living trust costs in Nevada and our guide to avoiding probate.
2. A will does not control your spouse’s half of the community property. You can only leave your own half. Half of everything the two of you built during the marriage is already theirs, and no will reaches it — which is also why community property is the part of a Nevada estate that usually causes the least trouble.
3. A will does not cover incapacity, and does not override beneficiary designations. Pair it with a durable power of attorney and an advance directive — see the five documents every family needs — and keep your beneficiary forms current.
Will vs. Trust for Nevada Families
Every Nevada adult needs a will. No default rule names a guardian for your children, and the separate-property table hands a third of what you owned before the marriage to your children rather than your spouse. There is no state death tax pushing Nevadans toward a trust — the constitution forbids one — so the trust question here is about probate avoidance, privacy, and Nevada’s unusually strong asset-protection trust law. Start with Trust vs. Will: Which Does Your Family Need? and the numbers in our Nevada living trust cost guide.
If the will is what you need today, Trust & Will’s Nevada package includes the witness pages, guardianship nominations, and healthcare documents — build your Nevada will here.
FAQ
Does a will have to be notarized in Nevada?
No. Validity takes your signature and two competent witnesses subscribing in your presence (§ 133.040). A notary appears only in the optional self-proving affidavit — though under § 133.055 a signature on that affidavit counts as a signature on the will itself.
Are handwritten wills legal in Nevada?
Yes, with no witnesses required — but the signature, the date, and the material provisions must all be in your own handwriting (§ 133.090). Nevada, unlike California, treats the date as a required element.
Can I make an electronic will in Nevada?
Yes. Nevada authorized electronic wills in 2001, the first state to do so, and rewrote the law in 2017 (§ 133.085). The will must contain the date and your electronic signature plus at least one of: an authentication characteristic such as a fingerprint or retinal scan, an electronic notary’s signature and seal, or two attesting electronic witness signatures. To be self-proving it must also designate a qualified custodian (§ 133.086).
What happens if I die without a will in Nevada?
Your half of the community property goes to your spouse (§ 123.250). Your separate property is split: your spouse takes one-half if you leave one child, one-third if you leave more than one, and — if you have no children — one-half, with your parents taking the rest (§§ 134.040, 134.050).
Does Nevada have an estate or inheritance tax?
No. Article 10, Section 1(7) of the Nevada Constitution provides that “No inheritance tax shall ever be levied,” and Nevada’s former pick-up estate tax became inoperative when Congress eliminated the federal credit it was measured by.
Does a will avoid probate in Nevada?
No — a will goes through probate. Living trusts, transfer-on-death deeds, community property with right of survivorship, and beneficiary designations are the tools that pass property outside the court process.
Nevada Law Cited on This Page
- NRS § 133.020 — sound mind; age
- NRS § 133.040 — valid wills: writing, subscription, witnesses and attestation
- NRS § 133.085 — electronic will (added 2001, amended 2017)
- NRS § 133.086 — requirements for a self-proving electronic will
- NRS § 133.090 — holographic will
- NRS § 133.100 — nuncupative or oral will invalid
- NRS § 123.250 — ownership of community property on the death of a spouse
- NRS §§ 134.010, 134.040, 134.050 — succession to separate property
- Nev. Const. art. 10, § 1(7) — “No inheritance tax shall ever be levied.”
Update log — August 2026: page created. Execution, holographic, electronic-will, community-property and intestacy rules verified against the official Nevada Revised Statutes and the Nevada Constitution as published by the Nevada Legislature. Reviewed when Nevada law changes.